Internal combustion rotor engine

ABSTRACT

A rotor engine, which comprises fourfold working pistons. The pistons forming jointly with a cylinder two ring-shaped compression chambers in the center section of the cylinder. The cylinder defines in one of its sections two combustion chambers. The pistons, being on a power stroke every time, the piston moves one side of the cylinder to the other side. The cylinder has a cylinder head including ports to pilot the intake to an exhaust from the engine by the pistons, compression pipes are also provided and passage means are arranged for a fuel-air mixture from the compression chamber through compression pipes to the top of valves in the cylinder heads. A rotor assembly comprises a left rotor and a right rotor. The rotors have cam-like tracks. At least one cylindrical runner assembly including at least one runner and are placed between the cam-like tracks of the rotors. The rotors include two cylindrical castings on a rotor shaft, such that they are facing each other, yet 90* off set from each other, so that a high lobe of one of the rotors is opposite a low lobe of the other of the rotors, and being in constant contact with the cam-like tracks. A roller pin connects the runners and transmits the power stroke of the engine from the pistons to the runner, and the number of power strokes are available through the use of one cylinder and piston-assembly dependent upon the number of the lobes.

United States Patent Warner [111 3,745,981 [451 July 17,1973

[ INTERNAL COMBUSTION ROTOR ENGINE {76] Inventor: Henry Warner, 164-71Underhill Avenue, Flushing, NY.

22 Filed: Sept. 2, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 68,857

[52] US. Cl. 123/58 AB, 92/71, 123/56 BC [51] Int. Cl. F02b 75/26 [58]Field of Search 123/62, 58 AB, 56 BC, 123/71 V, 71 R; 92/71 [56]References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,094,398 4/1914 Anderson 123/621,127,267 2/1915 McElwain.... 92/71 X 1,215,383 2/1917 Kenyon 123/621,436,130 11/1922 Webb 123/71 V X 2,538,726 1/1951 Kane et a1. 123/62 X2,856,781 10/1958 Forbes 123/58 AB X Primary Examiner-Wendell E. BurnsAttorney-Ernest G. Montague [57] ABSTRACT A rotor engine, whichcomprises fourfold working pistons. The pistons forming jointly with acylinder two ring-shaped compression chambers in the center section ofthe cylinder. The cylinder defines in one of its sections two combustionchambers. The pistons, being on a power stroke every time, the pistonmoves one side of the cylinder to the other side. The cylinder has acylinder head including ports to pilot the intake to an exhaust from theengine by the pistons, compression pipes are also provided and passagemeans are arranged for a fuel-air mixture from the compression chamberthrough compression pipes to the top of valves in the cylinder heads. Arotor assembly comprises a left rotor and a right rotor. The rotors havecam-like tracks. At least one cylindrical runner assem bly including atleast one runner and are placed between the cam-like tracks of therotors. The rotors include two cylindrical castings on a rotor shaft,such that they are facing each other, yet 90 off set from each other, sothat a high lobe of one of the rotors is opposite a low lobe of theother of the rotors, and being in constant contact with the cam-liketracks. A roller pin connects the runners and transmits the power strokeof the engine from the pistons to the runner, and the number of powerstrokes are available through the use of one cylinder andpiston-assembly dependent upon the number of the lobes.

2 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures "Q 1 9 a r I la 3 l g g 4 1 :2

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sum 1 052 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ROTOR ENGINE The present invention relatesto a rotor engine with four-fold working piston.

It is one object of the present invention to provide an internalcombustion powerplant that compared to present designed powerplants issmaller in size, simpler in design and operation, has less moving parts,has less power loss due to lack of non power producing strokes andmovements, and has a high degree of versatility.

According to the present invention, the rotor engines advantages residein the fact, that there are four power strokes for each revolution of arotor shaft, and that the power output can be increased in various ways.One way is to place a second cylinder and piston assembly around therotor axis, 135 off from the first cylinder and piston assembly. In thismanner there will be an overlapping of power strokes. This will providethe engine with eight power strokes for one shaft revolution. This isequivalent to two, eight cylinder, four cycle engines. Another way toincrease the power of the rotor engine is by increasing the number ofstrokes per shaft revolution. This is accomplished by increasing thediameter of the rotors, and increasing the number of high lobes and lowpoints on each rotor to four. By using one cylinder and piston assembly,and using a rotor with four high lobes, once again there are eight powerstrokes for one shaft revolution. A third way to increase the poweroutput is to use a combination of the two above mentioned methods. Bycombining two cylinder and piston assemblies with rotors that have fourhigh lobes, the engine will have 16 power strokes per shaft revolution,which would equal four, eight cylinder, four cycle engines.Theoretically more power can still be obtained by increasing the rotordiameter even further and increasing the number of high lobes by evennumbers, however there exists a practical limit due to size andapplication.

Another advantage of the engine designed in accordance with the presentinvention is that since this engine will have either a minimum of twocombustion chambers or a maximum of four, the hook up for a cleanburning computerized injection system will not be very uncomplicated.Yet another advantage to the present engine is the factthat the rotorengine can also be driven by compressed air or steam by removing thecylinder andpiston assembly and reworking the piston that forms the ringshaped compression chamber, and stearing the inlet and outlet by meansof a sliding valve.

With this and other objects in view which will become apparent in thefollowing detailed description, the present invention will be clearlyunderstood in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a partial view of the rotor assembly of the rotor engine, anda sectional view of the cylinder and piston assembly of the rotorengine.

FIG. 2 is a cross sectional end view of the rotor assembly of the rotorengine, and a partial end view of the cylinder and piston assembly ofthe rotor engine.

FIG. 3 is an extended schematic view of the cam-like tracks of therotors.

Referring now to the drawings, the rotor engine consists of three majorassemblies. These assemblies are a rotor assembly, a cylinderand pistonassembly and a runner assembly.

1. The rotor assembly consists of two cylindrically shaped castings,each of which has a cam like track machined into one of its ends. Thiscam like track forms two high lobes and two low points on each rotor.These two rotors are then mounted onto a rotor shaft 11 so that the twocam like tracks face eachother but are degrees spaced apart eachother,so that the high lobe of one rotor is opposite the low point of theother rotor. They are spaced far enough apart on their shaft 11 so thatthe runner assembly will be able to fit between them. This is the mainassembly of the rotor engine.

2. The cylinder and piston assembly is the power producing section ofthe rotor engine. It consists of two subassemblies which are designed asfollows:

A cylinder assembly comprises a three piece machined casting. The centersection of the cylinder assembly has a boring going through its lengththat is of a greater diameter than the borings of either the left or theright section. Both the left and the right sections are capped withcylinder heads, that have mounted in them a self-piloted intake valveand around the valve opening shaft a compression chamber for cooling thevalve opening and cylinder head and around the valve shaft roundopenings. For scavenging for good cleaning of the combustion chamber andspark plug. The center section forms the two compression chambers 3 and4, while the left and the right sections form the two combustionchambers 1 and 2.

The piston assembly 6 is a one piece machined casting which for ease ofexplanation will be referred to as consisting of three parts. The centersection is a cylindrically shaped casting that has compression ringgrooves cut into it at each end. The diameter of the piston 6 is suchthat it has freedom of movement in the center section of the cylinderassembly 5. It makes a tight seal with the cylinder wall through the useof compression rings. The length of the piston 6 is slightly less thanthe length of the center section of the cylinder assembly 5 minus thestroke of the piston assembly 6. The left and the right sections of thepiston assembly 6 are of such a diameter that there is freedom ofmovement between them and the cylinder wall, and they are sealed throughthe use of compression rings. The length of these sections is slightlyless that the length of either the left or right sections of thecylinder assembly 5. The left and the right sections of the pistonassembly 6 have grooves for compression rings cut into their outer ends.

' When the piston assembly6 is mounted in the cylinder assembly 5, theentire unit forms two ring shaped, ring sealed compression chambers 3and 4,

and two ring sealed combustion chambers l and 2.

3. The runner assembly consists of the runner 7 which is a cylindricallyshaped machined casting and a runner guide which is a casting 8 that hasa boring throughout its length large enough to allow a runner 7 smoothfreedom of movement in and out of the guide. At both ends of the runner7 are mounted ball bearings whose axis are perpendicular to the runner's7 travel and parallel to each other. The runner assembly 7 is mountedbetween the rotor assembly 6 and the cylinder and piston assembly 6 insuch a way that the bearings of the runner 7 are in constant contactwith the camlike track of the rotors 10 of the rotor assembly. Therunner 7 is coupled to the center piston 6 of the cylinder 5 and pistonassembly 6 through a roller pin 9 that fits through a slot that ismachined into therunner guide 7 and a matching slot that is machinedinto the center section of the cylinder assembly 5 which slot isarranged through the runner 7 and the piston 6.

In order to simplify the explanation of the operation of the rotorengine of the present invention the cycle with the left combustionchamber 1 under compression just before the point of ignition, andrunner 7 over on the left side is taken up first, while the right end ofthe runner 7 is making contact with the right rotor just before the topof the lobe.

As the left spark plug fires, the left end of piston 6 in the cylinder 5starts its stroke, taking the runner 7 in the runner assembly 8 with itthrough the roller pin 9. The runner 7 is now transmitting all the forceof the combustion onto the declining slope of the lobe of the rightrotor 10, which in turn rotates the rotor shaft 11. As the piston 6continues traveling, the area in the right compression chamber 4decreases forcing the fuel-air mixture out through the compression pipe4 that connects the right compression chamber 4 to the top side of theintake valve 12 of the left combustion chamber 1. Around the valve guideare holes in the cylinder head for passage of the air-fuel mixture tothe valve 12. The holes in the compression head give the mixture amotion for better cleaning. Since the piston 6 is still on the powerstroke. The pressure in the left combustion chamber 1 is still greaterthan the pressure that is building up in the right compression chamber 4and the compression pipe 4 of the left combustion chamber 1, and theself piloted valve 12 stays closed. As the power stroke of the left sideof piston 6 continues, the fuel-air mixture that is present in the rightcompression chamber 4 is being compressed. At this time there is avacuum being created in the left compression chamber 3 which will drawin the fuel-air mixture from the carburetor when the left end of thepiston 6 is at the end of the power stroke which happens when the top ofthe left end of piston 6 passes the exhaust port 13, allowing the burnedgases to escape. At this point, the left end side of the ring shapedcenter piston 6 passes the intake port 14, and draws the fuel-airmixture into the exising vacuum in the left compression chamber 3. Atthis point, the runner 7 is almost at the low end of right rotor 10, andapproaching the high lobe of the left rotor 10. As the end of the leftpiston 6 opened the exhaust port 13, the pressure in the left combustionchamber 1 drops, allowing the greater pressure of the right compressionchamber 4 to force left valve 12 open. Due to the high pressure of theincoming fuel-air mixture, its velocity helps to expel the exhaustgases, and purge the cylinder 5 of all burned gases. Now the rightcombustion chamber 2 is under compression, and the left combustionchamber 1 is full of a fresh fuel-air mixture. At a predetermined numberof degrees of spark advance of the right end of piston 6, the rightspark plug fires, and the right side of the piston 6 is now on its powerstroke. The runner 7, which is connected through the roller pin 9 to thepiston 6, now follows the piston 6 and transmits all the power of thepower stroke onto the back slope of the left rotor 10. As the piston 6continues to move through its power stroke, it compresses the fuel-airmixture in the left combustion chamber 1 and the left compressionchamber 3. As the piston 6 reaches the end of its stroke, and passes theexhaust port 13, it allows the higher pressure in the left compressionchamber 3 and the compression pipe 3 that connects the left compressionchamber 3 and the top of the right intake valve 12 to force the rightintake valve 12 open and expel all the burned gases, and charge theright combustion chamber 2 with new gases. As the right combustionchamber 2 is filled, there is no longer a higher pressure on the back ofthe right valve 12, and the valve springs pull right valve 12 shut. Therunner 7 is now near the low point of the left rotor 10, and approachingthe high lobe of the right rotor 10. The left combustion chamber 1 isnow again under compression, and at the predetermined spark advance theleft spark plug fires. This completes one-half revolution of the rotorshaft 1 l, and brings the piston 6 back to the starting point Havingdescribed my invention, I claim:

1. A rotor engine, comprising fourfold working pistons,

said pistons forming jointly with a cylinder two ringshaped compressionchambers in the center section of said cylinder,

said cylinder defining in one of its sections two combustion chambers,

one of said pistons being on a power stroke every time the fourfoldpiston moves from one side of said cylinder to the other side,

said cylinder having a cylinder head including ports, to pilot theintake to said engine by said pistons,

compression pipes,

passage means from said compression chambers through compression pipesto the top of valves in said ports in said cylinder heads,

a rotor assembly comprising a left rotor and a right rotor,

said rotors having cam-like tracks,

at least one cylindrical runner assembly including at least one runnerand placed between said cam-like tracks of said rotors,

said runners having bearing means at both ends,

said rotors including two cylindrical castings on a rotor shaft, suchthat they are facing each other, yet offset from each other, so that ahigh lobe of one of said cam-like tracks being opposite a low lobe ofthe other of said cam-like tracks, and being in constant contact withsaid runners,

a roller pin connecting said runner assembly and transmitting the powerstroke of the engine from said pistons to said runners.

2. The rotor engine, as set forth in claim I, wherein said compressionchambers are ring-shaped and have a greater volume than said combustionchambers, and said combustion chambers are adapted to be filled withfresh air.

a: e v 4: =0:

1. A rotor engine, comprising fourfold working pistons, said pistonsforming jointly with a cylinder two ring-shaped compression chambers inthe center section of said cylinder, said cylinder defining in one ofits sections two combustion chambers, one of said pistons being on apower stroke every time the fourfold piston moves from one side of saidcylinder to the other side, said cylinder having a cylinder headincluding ports, to pilot the intake to said engine by said pistons,compression pipes, passage means from said compression chambers throughcompression pipes to the top of valves in said ports in said cylinderheads, a rotor assembly comprising a left rotor and a right rotor, saidrotors having cam-like tracks, at least one cylindrical runner assemblyincluding at least one runner and placed between said cam-like tracks ofsaid rotors, said runners having bearing means at both ends, said rotorsincluding two cylindrical castings on a rotor shaft, such that they arefacing each other, yet 90* offset from each other, so that a high lobeof one of said cam-like tracks being opposite a low lobe of the other ofsaid cam-like tracks, and being in constant contact with said runners, aroller pin connecting said runner assembly and transmitting the powerstroke of the engine from said pistons to said runners.
 2. The rotorengine, as set forth in claim 1, wherein said compression chambers arering-shaped and have a greater volume than said combustion chambers, andsaid combustion chambers are adapted to be filled with fresh air.